Finished!

I'm calling this finished because I'm anxious to move on to the next victim!

Current WIP

WOW, is it really December 11??? Time seems to fly this time of year! I have been working on this portrait three days, and though I have a ways to go, I'm confident that it is going in the right direction. I do have some problems with the eyes and the mouth and have already started work on those thanks to a little help from my WC friends who are very encouraging when I stall. I've had a lot of fun with these portraits and I think I'll stick with it this time.

Swap Portrait Finished

I'm calling this finished! There are things that I would like to see done better but I've gone the limit of my paper in those areas. So, rather than take a chance on messing it up, it's time to stop. I had a great time doing these portraits and participating in the swap; it's really piqued my interest in doing portraits. I have my next photo picked out!

Featured Artist

For Thanksgiving this year, the family came to our house for our traditional get together. It was a great day, my cooking wasn't too bad, and my seven-year-old nephew stayed the night with us. We had movies and popcorn, and Collin, who is an art lover wanted to make a drawing. Armed with paper, prisma markers, and colored pencils, he sat down and created this drawing. So, he is my first featured artist. Originally, the drawing was for me, but Collin decided he wanted to give it to his Uncle Tommy--as you can see, it's personalized!

Second Exchange Portrait

I have been working on this exchange portrait for three days now (I think). This photo is so much more detailed than any other portrait I've done to date. Of course, that's only two others recently so I can still consider myself a beginner! I'm trying really hard to get this just right so my exchange partner will be happy with it. This was so much fun, I'll have to be sure to do it again next year!

Exchanging Portraits

Every year WetCanvas has a portrait exchange for Christmas. I SO wanted to sign up for this exchange but my portrait abilities are just minimal! I didn't want whoever got paired up with me to be disappointed--though I have to say, regardless of the portrait outcome, it really is FUN!! Anyway, I DID sign up and I have been working on the portrait from the photo provided by my partner. Mostly, it's finished but I still have time to look at it for a time and do some tweaking.

We still have til the first week of December on the exchange so I paired up with another member for a second portrait--I just started working on hers today!

Both of these photos are something that I never would have done had they not been given to me in this exchange. So I learned a great deal and probably will not be as apt to pass up something because it looks difficult.

Learning from Demos

A week or so ago, I visited the Piney Woods Art Guild for their Sunday afternoon meeting. The demo of the day was in acrylics. I have never tried acrylic, so I decided that I would start doing a small project after each demo I see; this way, I learn something new and see if I like a new medium at the same time! So, this is my acrylic project. It's not quite finished I don't think. But I'm not sure what to do next. I made my own ground as I didn't have anything to paint on. I did this by taking a thick piece of chipboard, sealing it, painting on a coat of gesso, a coat of acrylic and sealing again. It seemed to work ok but sometimes the paint pulled off; I'm not sure if this was my ground or my method of painting.

A Little Progress

Things have been a little hectic in the last few days and Ihaven't had much time for art. Here is a little update on the mosaic project. So far, I'm happy with the look!

Weekend Update

There's not much to update as far as the mosaic project is concerned--that's a much slower process than I anticipated! Maybe tomorrow!

What I did do this weekend was participate in a small town art show that I have found to be great fun! The people are so friendly--I really enjoyed getting out and walking around. I want to share one ribbon with you as it is a watercolor piece that I posted several months ago. This is the first time I have shown it and I am extremely happy about it!

Something Different--Mosaic

I'm not sure you would call this mixed media but it's something I've been wanting to try for a long time. I had quite a lot of trouble deciding on a support but ended up with a gesso/acrylic surface on foam core. It wasn't the best decision as it bows but the alternative was much much heavier. In the spirit of experimentation, it works for now. I marked my surface with a design previously used for stained glass and the photo only shows half of the "canvas". As I place more and more of the "tiles" I will post the other half.

The tiles are not really tiles but plastic pieces. More about those later. I am playing this by ear, but after completing the design, my thoughts are to varnish the surface, maybe use some antiquing solution to give some depth and apply a final layer of varnish.

Experimenting with Wax Based Media

The last couple of days have been devoted to experimenting with things other than color pencil. I have read about Jeffrey Robert and Don Marco who are CRAYON artists. That's pretty amazing to me, the kind of work they create with the lowly crayon! So, I decided to try it for myself. Trying something like that gives you a new respect for the artist and the medium. This magnolia started out in crayon but just didn't have enough pigment for the black background and too much wax! So, before chucking the whole thing, I pulled out the oil pastels, which to me have the same kind of consistency as the crayon, but decidedly more color pigmentation. After trying to layer and blend a bit, I couldn't get any more pastel to adhere.

Since I was working with heat yesterday, I decided to try some heat on this project. I heated up the "drawing pad" and tried adding some pastel to the drawing, without success. Remembering that I used crayons in the past to create drawings on fabric, layering by heating with the iron, I pulled out the iron, heated it up, laid a thick paper towel between the paper and the iron and moved the iron across the drawing several times.

The resulting drawing is what you see here; the heat didn't "melt" the color enough to fill in the specks left in the paper. I might try this another time using a paper with less texture. The crayon/pastel also built up on the paper making it seem heavy and a little like it might crack!

Experimenting with Heat

I spent today playing around with a technique that's being talked about on WetCanvas, colored pencil on a heated surface. To experiment, I pulled out a drawing that I made years ago. It was meant to be a fantasy/abstract kind of drawing so the colors are pretty wild for me! Anyway, because this piece had lots of white specks showing through I thought it would make an excellent subject.

I placed my heating pad (minus the cover) on the drawing board and over that I used an acrylic cutting board from the kitchen, smooth side up. In testing, the board can get pretty warm, so warm that a couple of times I lifted my hand off quickly when I set it down. However, if you keep something under your hand, it's just right.

I found that it was best to add color to paper right on the heated surface. It seems that it makes the pencil move more smoothly, some colors more than others. So while not all my white is covered at this point, it definitely improved. Unfortunately, I didn't make a photo of the before product for comparison. But, I did enjoy the experiment enough that I will do another small piece by this technique soon.

Giving it a rest...

Well, folks, I have done just about everything imaginable to this piece and it still looks the same to me! I used some solvent to dissolve the pigment trying to fill in all those little white specks of paper. So, the zebra goes to the "come back to this later" pile while I decide on something new to work on.

Another Day, Another Layer

Though I know I've gone through several pencils, this is not looking a lot different. Today I sprayed with fixative to see if additional layers might show up a little better.

Another Day with Stripey

Another day, another layer. Not much else to be said. I'm still several layers from finished.

Re-run

After taking a few days away from the drawing table, I find myself pulling out the zebra again. This poor zebra has been around the block but I can't seem to give him up! I've started putting some sunset-ish colors in for the background and some greenery on the lower part. I haven't decided if this makes sense yet, the pencils just started going there and I let them. So, he will fill in a few days until some new subject takes over.

Good News!

The weather has really been nice the last couple of days, the air so cool! I have started using the early morning hours to clean the flower beds and kind of get things ready for fall--I love this time of year--not too hot, not too cold! So I haven't started any new project, though I do have a growing list of things that will probably keep me busy through the winter!

I entered three pieces in the annual Four States Fair last week; Domino!, Shadow (the Cat), and Cherries. There were so many awesome entries that I'm beside myself to say that Domino! received a BLUE RIBBON! Hence, the photo above which is not that great but couldn't resist sharing!

Portrait Finished!

Though I may be tweaking this for a while, essentially I'm done, time to move on to something else! Can you see my attention span is not that long???? Comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

Coming back to portraits

I haven't done a portrait in almost ten years. This is something I've been thinking about for a year and haven't had the courage to start. The few portraits I did then weren't all that good and it made me frustrated not to be able to do what I wanted. I think I'm a little more patient now, though my mail carrier might not agree as I attack him everyday looking for my art exchange package!!!!! Anyway, last week I did start a portrait and this is where I am with it. I know it looks strange at this point but not as strange as it did two days ago. Being on black, I think is very pretty, but does pose some color problems for me. This is day 4 on it and I figure I have 2 or 3 more to go. Feel free to leave comments if you like!

Stripey

The big goal was to finish the zebra this week BUT even though it's begining to look better, I'm at a point where I can't lay down any more color on the stripes! Maybe I applied too much pressure too soon or it's just not the same as working on black paper. This would have been a better project if I had used black paper and put in the white stripes. This might be a good time to experiment with another medium on colored pencil.

Pressing toward the goal

The goal being to finish up some of those pieces that have been around ahile. Well, the dominos haven't been too long in the making but it was beginning to seem like it. So, it's done--I think. Then, a burst of renewed interest in the gazebo had me dragging out the watercolor supplies and working a bit on it. I'm somewhat happy with it and I have some details to add in the next few days. I also had time to add some color to the zebra but I'm saving that update til tomorrow. So, progress!!!

Art Exchange

I am participating in an art exchange on WetCanvas this month. All exchanges were mailed out at the end of August and recipients are just beginning to get theirs. My secret exchange recipient was Marion Brown who lives in the United Kingdom! I can't believe I have a piece of art in the UK! She received hers today so I am posting it here on my blog as a finished work. It is a 5 x 7 piece on black Stonhenge. Now, I am Patiently (?) waiting for my surprise to arrive!

A close Up

Here is just a section of the dominos close up. I am spending time adding more white (what I can with the nubs!!) before I begin on the shadows. It's not easy keeping those little dots round! I was hoping the color would be more stiking against the white.

Seeing Spots!!!!

I've been hard at it on the dominos for the last couple of days and I'm beginning to see spots! Another day of burnishing and I'll move on to the shadows. I've used four white pencils already so I'll have to buy some more before I can go on. Hopefully by the time I finish this I'll be ready to tackle the zebra again--OR I have a couple of new ideas...hummm, my photos are not really looking that great, I'll have to photograh this earlier in the day.

Domino Updated

It's been a nice quiet Sunday and I've spent most of the day working on the domino piece. This is a photo from a game of dominos played one night last winter. We were so surprised when I played the last domino, in the last slot of our perfect rectangle! I grabbed my camera and took a shot for the scrapbook--and not too long ago I started thinking of it as a good idea for a drawing. As you can see, it's holding my attention pretty well and I'm moving along a little faster than I usually do (like with the zebra!!) Oh, well, I'll get back to him one of these days!

Something New

YIKES, where has the month gone??? So much has happened I haven't had a lot of time to update here. On August 16 I participated in the Pioneer Days Art Show and brought home two Third Place and one Honorable Mention! It was a wonderful little show and I look forward to doing it again next year. I've started a couple of new things, one in watercolor and one in colored pencil. I will post both as a work in progress and we'll see which one is finished first! Can't really see a lot about either one right now!

More Zebra

Though it looks like not a lot of progress is being made, a lot of work is going on! Maybe if I'd thought about it sooner, I'd have done the zebra in graphite but I think in the end it will be ok. Other distractions have slowed me down, too; a trip to the library netted me a dozen or so good books to read and I've taken to putting my feet up in the heat of the afternoon to enjoy them!

Dogwood Days

The summer heat has really slowed me down. I spend the early morning hours in the patio garden, watering and tending all my plants--which have done really well considering the heat! The only trees left with blossums right now are the crepe myrtles and they like the heat! But I had a photo from this dogwood; it's watercolor and I tried to make it light and cool!

Zebra

I may have been working on this piece forever, it certainly seems like it. It's one of those that keeps getting put back because something else is more exciting at the moment. So, I've been trying to work on it a little here and there between other projects and might actually get it to a point where I can finish it! I've put in a little background color to break the monotony. Black cherry, indigo, black, and some brown are layered to build up the stripes.

Another Carousel

Yet another carousel horse but this time, in watercolor. I spent three days practicing dropping in color and wet into wet and wet into dry but think I saboutaged myself on this one because I let my paper buckle. Well, the finished product in not something to brag about except for the fact that I actually finished it!

Nearing the Finish

This drawing is not all I hoped it would turn out to be, I'm still having problems with the reflectiveness of the wall. I also am not sure if I like the lines representing the names. I'm working on this sporatically, between a watercolor here and a challenge there. None the less, this is where I am.

Dancing on Hwy 82

It's been a very busy week with little time for working on new pieces. On Saturday we attended the last day of the Little River Arts Council's Midsummer Art Show in Ashdown, Arkansas. I showed two pieces, Wild Ride, the carousel horse, and the Open Church Door, both colored pencil.

This is a watercolor that I have been working on since last week. I'm not sure if it's finished or not. Part of me is happy with it and doesn't want to mess anything up!! The other part of me wants to perk it up a bit--stay tuned for the outcome!!

I'm calling this one finished. I did add some more color to the bowl, and may come back to it again at a later time, but the paper is not wanting to take any more pencil. I really enjoyed doing the beads and if I were to do this over again, I would start with the bowl and work my way to the beads.

Beads in a Bowl

This drawing is for the monthly challenge at WetCanvas and is almost complete. I have been traveling for the last week and will most likely finish this up in the next day or two. It is 8 x 10 on Sheer Heaven transparency using prisma pencils.

After reading some in "Daring Color" by Anne Abgott, I worked this piece a little more. The added layers definitely make a difference.

On the Drawing Board

Well, time flies, and I haven't even taken time to post my current colored pencil effort. It has been a challenge, in fact, this is the second attempt on this one. Though I am using a different pose, the problems I am encountering in the wall are the same.

I continue to read and practice all I can about watercolor but invariably come back to the cps to see something finished.

A New Book

I got a new book about watercolor, Daring Color, by Anne Abgott. It's been very helpful. All I have been doing for several days is practicing. In her book, Anne talks about mingling colors on the paper. Some of my mingles have been ok and some have been, welll... sometimes, though, it's like looking at ink spots and seeing what's there! So, here is one of my mingles, a mingle flower...

Carousel Fini!

I imagine this is finished, though I will probably pick at it until I have it in a frame. Finished size is 15x11, matted and framed 16x20.

Carousel Horse Update

Looks like I'm going to need another day to finish this one. My attention span on a piece is about three days and then I want to start thinking of what's next!

Carousel Horse

We took a short trip to Austin over the weekend and I really missed having some form of art to work on. I take things with me sometimes but I never really have time to work on them; and I find that being away from it a few days inspires me to "get to it" when I return. This week, I went back to the colored pencils for this carousel horse. I have this much so far and it seems to be moving along pretty fast.

Adding More Color

After scanning and posting, I can always see where I can make corrections. I am very appreciative of the comments from WetCanvas artists who made comments and gave me encouragement. So, this morning I added a bit more paint and tried to show more separation in the cup and the table.

Humble Beginnings

I took this photo several years ago, a hibiscus cutting from a larger plant. It sat in this styrofoam cup for months before I replanted it. It's humble pot didn't keep it from blooming! This little plant is now six years old and quite large. I really enjoyed making it into a watercolor painting!

My First Watercolor!

Worked a second day on the tulips but could never accomplish any darks. I could use a few lessons to get me started but in the meantime, I'm off to find another subject. A little fun practice couldn't hurt!

A New Painting!

Yesterday I took out the watercolor paints and started on a tulip painting. I've done quite a lot of reading but still don't know too much about how to go about creating watercolor paintings. Here is what I have so far.